2010 - a look back

It's been a good steady year. 

Just as I have wished one year ago. 

Thanks God for that :)

In 2010 I haven't played any live Scrabble tournaments in English but it's bound to change in 2011. 
In March I'm playing in Mannheim and then in June I'll be trying to defend my Polish Champion title in Warsaw or Poznan. 
And then if I win I may go to the Worlds again - assuming it's not in Australia.
Happy New Year to all Readers! 

http://literaxx.blogspot.com/2009/12/2009-look-back.html

Xmas again

(c) by http://www.cafepress.co.uk/+scrabble_serenity_prayer_christmas_stocking,485979383

WESPA.ORG

No idea how long it's been around in its refreshed form but I love it anyway!

The www.wespa.org site provides information on latest Scrabble events as well as upcoming tournaments. 

And it now has the best thing of all - the ratings tool (developed by an Australian Edward Okulicz).

Thanks to its archive function it enabled me to learn that Wojtek has played the current World Champion in Melbourn back in 1999. I now also know the current head to head balance between Nigel and Pakorn. 

Just check it out and you won't regret it:

http://www.wespa.org/ratings/index.shtml

Everybody knows

The Scrabble world has welcomed the recent news from Johor Bahru.

Nigel Richards has won the inaugural Tournament of Champions winning 19 out of 27 games with an impressive spread of  +1415 leaving behind David Boys (17 and +518) and Panupol Sujjayakorn (16 and +692).
I guess there's no more guessing about who stands the best chances of becoming the first ever Scrabbler to win the World Championship twice.

Causeway 2010 results

The news from Johor Bahru has just came in that Panupol Sujjayakorn has become the new Causeway Champion A.D. 2010. This proves that the 2003 World Champion is still not to be written off and stands a good chance of repeating his success in the Tournament of the Champions taking place Dec 7th - Dec 9th.
On the contrary the first ever 1991 World Champion Peter Morris has shown that he's no longer a force to be reckoned with - he took the penultimate 49th spot winning only 11 out of 45 games.
It's great to see Mikki Nicholson confirm his magnificent form. After winning the UK National Scrabble Championship just over a month ago he took the 2nd spot in the competition leaving behind the likes of Nigel Richards (5th), David Wiegand (7th) and Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (13th).
And now to the surprises:
1) Mohammed Sulaiman - this year's 2010 Malta Open Scrabble Champion  has finished last with 11 wins and -2564. How on earth did he manage to win in Malta in the first place?
2) Peter Kougi - the guy I have beaten in the 1st round of the last years World Scrabble Championship 2009 in Johor Bahru and last year's 2nd in the Causeway Open division has placed 40th with 18.5 and -583.
3)  Helen Gipson - my Zyzzyva guru finished 38th with 19 and -786. I'm eagerly awaiting any updates on this performance in her blog.


Let's take a deep breath and get ready for the creme de la creme of World Scrabble - the Tournament of the Champions. My bet:
1. Panupol
2. Nigel
3. Pakorn

Causeway 2010

I was hoping to return to Johor Bahru this year but:

1. didn't manage to collect enough cash

2. German Open in Mannheim showed up in the calendar and I decided to go for the cheaper European option.

But maybe I should have gone there after all, because:

1. in Johor Bahru it's +32 degrees Celsius with no wind

2. in Lodz it's -13 degrees Celsius with strong wind

Anyway, I'm happy to see after Round 9 Nigel in the 1st and Brian Cappelletto in the 2nd place. It would be nice to see a SOWPODS tournament being won by an American...

http://www.causewayscrabble.com/stories/frontpage.html

Wojtek Reloaded

Former Polish champion Wojtek has gone to Milton Keynes for this weekend lead by an impulse decision and it paid off. 

He won Division B by winning 12 out of 15 games with a spread of +528.
Wojtek's new ABSP ranking is 156 which is higher than that of Rafal who is currently at 148.

This could mean the Polish Championship 2011 could get really hot with two of my opponents having both won titles on English ground. 

Im really looking forward to that...

My goal in this championship is a silver medal. 
Rafal seems to be out of reach for me at this moment...

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/uk-scrabble/message/74509

Cardbox Reloaded

I'm back to Zyzzyva cardboxing ... again.

I started all anew by adding 8 letter words in probability order.

So far I have 3500 of the most probable 8's which is tantamount to 2382 quiz questions. I also revived my Excel file with a 'live' database link to Anagrams.db. It enables me to keep up-to-date on scheduled questions and the sizes of the cardboxes.

Scrabble Doll :)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1325660/Why-scrabbling-frock.html

Well done, Mikki!

The words are here...

Went to the Botanical Garden in Lodz today, and was amazed by the number of plants growing there, which I only knew by their name from studying words for Scrabble.

Here are some of the words I have literally come accross:

HOSTA, CAREX, ACONITE, AUBRIETA, SPIRAEA, ERIGERON, ASTILBE, ACANTHUS, WOODSIA, AJUGA, GEUM and most notably this one:

TANDOORI in Cracow

so after a SERIEMA in Lodz Zoo, I have now found a TANDOORI in Krakow (in the Jewish quarter)

If you're planning to visit Poland make sure to come to Cracow. It's the most beautiful and the most tourist-friendly city in Poland.
http://www.cracowonline.com/

Mannheim - one step nearer

I have paid the entry fee for the 1st German Open Scrabble Tournament in Mannheim.

I went for the cheapest option -  80 EUR (registration and refreshments only). 90 EUR pro night in the recommended hotel is a bit too strong for my East European budget :)

So now the entry fee and flights are paid. Just need to find a cheap lodging in Mannheim and my first Scrabble tournament in Germany will be almost perfect :)

SERIEMA

Today I went to the zoo in Lodz and saw a SERIEMA.

the best Scrabbler ever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Richards_%28Scrabble%29

Scrabble - double

A female Scrabble player from Malaysia has announced yesterday on Facebook that she's in relationship with a male Scrabble player from Sweden.

I played both of them at the World Scrabble Championship in Malaysia last year so I'm very happy for them.

Parlez-vous Scrabblaise?

Our Polish friend Milosz is in Montpellier since last week playing in the World Championship in French Scrabble.

He did reasonably well in the individual competition - placing 78th out of 81 competitors with a record of 4-10. 
It's a good result - I wasn't better in my debut either ;)

Now Milosz is going to compete in the Duplicate competition which in France is even more prestigious than the individual one.

Bonne chance, Milosz!

Milosz's blog:

http://metropolitarne.bloog.pl/?ticaid=6aba6

Mannheim here I come

I have booked return flight tickets from Poznan to Frankfurt. Cost: 70 euro.

Further costs:

entry fee: 80 euro

train tickets: 30 euro

hotel: 180 euro

food: 40 euros

Sum total: 400 euro for a nice 4 day-trip to Germany.

Fan page on facebook

I started my first ever fan page on Facebook. 

It's called Scrabble po angielsku (Scrabble in English). 

It's meant to help Polish people find other people willing to play Scrabble in English... in Poland :)

So far I have only one fan - me :))

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scrabble-po-angielsku-Scrabble-in-English/116670541716812?v=app_2373072738#!/pages/Scrabble-po-angielsku-Scrabble-in-English/116670541716812?v=page_getting_started

World Scrabble Championship 2010

It starts in exactly one week from now in Montepellier, France. Mind you - it's Scrabble in French.

For the first Poland will have its representative there. It's Milosz Wrzalek - a nice guy from Reda who refereed the English Scrabble Championship in Poland last year.

He will complete in both tournaments - regular and duplicate Scrabble.

All the best, Milosz!

http://www.montpellier2010.fr/

German Open

Thanks to Facebook I have learnt today that there is a tournament planned in Germany next year.

The 1st German Open is going to take place 11th - 13 March 2011 in Mannheim.

I'm seriously considering passing on UK Open 2011 and start saving money for Germany and maybe WSC 2011 - wherever it's going to be.

If I fail to qualify for the WSC I would still be able to take part in Causeway Challenge 2011 or UK Open 2012.

2011 is going to be a pretty interesting year.

And now back to Zyzzyva...

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=108965969145053

ABSP ratings update

Both of the Polish guys - Rafal and Wojtek have now the same rating - 148. 

This gives them joint 207th place on the ratings list.

In comparison Adrian Tamas is 34th and rated 180.

Mihai Pantis and Dan Sandu are joint 98th - rated 164.

Catalin Caba is 373th and rated 129.

I wonder what my rating will be after UK Open 2010 ...


http://www.absp.org.uk/ratings/100728r.html

The final game

And here comes photo of the board from Rafal's final game:

Please don't adjust your monitors - this picture is really blurry :)

And here are the moves:

Rafal                   Phil

bhindi 32           entirely 71
peachier 74        newly 30
vim  25             donated 63
coley 29            how 35
vum 16              stair 23
fag 18               obe 14
kae 17               urb 19
oft 29                xu 27
zilas 37             lazier 30
nur 12               pope 47
torsion 80          qadi 29
onstage 9

Phil's final rack: EJNT

The amazing Rafal

AWESOME!

Only 6 months after his triumph in Division C of the UK Open Rafal has even topped his success by winning Division B of the English Open 2010.

And what a win that has been!

He claimed the title in the last round by beating Phil Kelly by 12 points in a fight for the 1st spot thus winning the tournament on spread!

Well done, Rafal! 

Scrabble deluxe

Can anyone explain to me why the usual (Polish) Scrabble slogan "Liczy się każde słowo" (= "Every word counts" with an emphasis on counting) got changed in the Scrabble deluxe edition to "Każde słowo się liczy" (= "Every word counts" but with an emphasis on words)

And what's the use of creating a grid which doesn't hold the tiles in place because it's too shallow?

Guess the word

• this word returns 35,100,000 hits in Google
• it has eight letters and is a compound of two nouns - one of them being pie
• it even has its definition in Wikipedia

And best of all: 

• it's not allowed in Scrabble

Can you guess it?

The Coventry Quest

http://www.centrestar.co.uk/10engopen/html/B-enhanced-scoreboard.html


Rafal Dominiczak is in Coventry again.
This time it's the English Open commencing today and ending on Sunday.

It is already Rafal's 6th appearance in Coventry, so let's have a look at his record there:

1. English Grand (May 2008): div. B - 17th place 4.0-13.0 -860
2. English Open (August 2008): div. C - 2nd place 12.5-5.5 +377 (150 Ł)
3. Cock of the North (Oct. 2008): div. C - 1st place 19.0-3.0 +1432 (100 Ł)
4. UK Open (January 2009): div. C - 8th place 21.0-17.0 +358
5. UK Open (January 2010): div. C - 1st place 27.5-10.5 +2530 (1500 Ł)
6. English Open (July 2010): div. B - 1st place 15.0-6.0 +1023 (750 Ł)

All the best for Rafal!

Scrabble Sing Star

So what does the best (English) Scrabble player from Romania do when he's not playing or blogging about Scrabble?

He records nice songs.

Check this one out and you won't regret it, I promise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abX73neZ9GU&feature=player_embedded

AEIINST - the luckiest Spanish alphagram

Spain has won the Footbal World Cup in South Africa after beating Netherlands in the final by 1:0. The lucky scorer in the 117th minute of the match was the Spaniard whose last name is the anagram of a common bingo - Andres INIESTA.
That's all about Scrabble and Football :)

UK Open - 6 months later

How about this money list found today on www.absp.org.uk ?

                          Total    # prizes

Nigel Richards       2100       1
Rafal Dominiczak   1500       1
Mihai Pantis          1500       1

Thanks to ABSP for presenting this data for almost half a year now.

It makes my heart grow to see The Great Nigel from New Zealand followed by a Pole and a Romanian :)

More at: http://www.absp.org.uk/results/Money%20List%202010.xls

Triplets

[This is post number 100!]

I'm almost through with the triplets. I learnt them all from the Bible of every English Scrabble freak - the Collins Official Scrabble Lists by Darryl Francis and Allan Simmons (ISBN 979-0-00-727848-0) - pages 341-351.
Now on to Zyzzyva to practice them. At the end of June I should have them in my head :)
I'm a bit disappointed with my performance on the couplets though. I went through all of them from the book and then tried to practice them in Zyzzyva but got discouraged by the success rate of about 54% and stopped quizzing them half way through the list.
I hope I will do better with the triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets, octuplets, nontuplets, decuplets and undecuplets.
After I have finished them I will go back to couplets.
End of August I should know all of them, i.e. 2- to 11- combination anagrams of 7-letters - 10929 bingos in all :)
Then on to 1-anagram bingos of probability 1 to 10000 - 4434 of them.
When I'm finished at the end of September I will know 47% of all 7-letter words.
Then I will do some refreshing of 8-letter words - probability 1-5000.
And that's not all...

Literaxx is back

After two weeks offline (17.05-31.05.2010), Literaxx is back online:
www.playok.com/en/literaxx

Thanks Maf, you're human after all! ;)

Literaxx is dead (II)

So what could be the reasons for shutting down literaxx on http://www.playok.com/ ?

It looks like Maf has sold literaxx to a Cracow-based company Ganymede - the owner of the site http://www.gamedesire.com/

There you can find a couple of games that look exactly like literaxx.

1) WordPlay 2004 in room Greenville
http://www.gamedesire.com/online.game-literaxx.html

2) WordPlay in rooms Vegas (US) and London (UK)
http://www.gamedesire.com/online.game-word.play.html

What I still don't know is the dictionary which is being used there. I tried to play AHI and it got accepted so it's possible that Collins Scrabble Words is in place but I'd need to check on that.

I wonder if literaxx does well on the new site - I don't think I'm gonna play there unless I get an explanation from maf why he shut down my favorite game...

UK Open 2011

It's official - I'm going to participate in 2011 UK Open in Coventry at the beginning of next year. Rafal is going to be there too.
I also plan to participate in the warm-up tournament before that.
This means 66 games of Scrabble in 7 days.
It all starts on January 3rd and ends on January 9th.
Whole lotta money to spend though :(
The entry fees for both tournaments will be almost 500 Ł in total. Add prices for the flight and you end up with an amount equal to a return ticket to Singapore.
Maybe Causeway 2010 would still be a better option...?

Literaxx is dead

The place where I started my Scrabble adeventure is gone.
The webmaster of www.playok.com - Marek Futrega (the owner of the site) shut down the game without any notice nor explanation.
Literaxx started on 23rd February 2003 and I was there from first day on - fascinated by this game.
I have played some 5000 games there. It was a magical place.
It was there where I've learnt my first girlfriend - sophie_cd.
Princess_kasia and acton got to know each other there too.
It was the place where I fought my fierce battles with beciaone, west1, clan_destino, dolores_haze, hphila, krzychuxp, earsnake66, adrenal_cortex and princemichal. There were some nice games too: especially with majik23 and agnieszka_abc but also with watcheru, strachol, zieleangielskie and recently vampire_akasha.
Almost 7,5 years online and many true fans of this game. And then this - simply shut down.
Marek, you're not the god so stop playing one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble_variants#Literaxx

unplugged - a new man, so to speak

I'll be back in a week or so...
I took a break from my PC and got rewarded with a lot of time to spend on learning new words.
This time I'm learning all 7-letter words having more than one anagram.
I'm currently 70 % through the couplets (racks with two anagrams). This is actually the biggest group with over 6000 words. Then on to 3-11 anagram racks.
Couplets are really easy and fun to learn.
The nicest one I came accross was KURSAAL-RUSALKA. The first word looks very German and the second one very Polish.
Scrabble in English, eh?

If you're interested what Kursaal and Rusalka mean:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kursaal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusalka

Łódź Tournament - day 2

The tournament resumed with round 8 at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning.

Game 8
against Andrzej (122.24). I started the game with an English word UPDATE :) I got two blanks in this game and bingoed twice with cYGANKI (the gipsies) and SZ(Y)NKOWA (of her - ham-like).
W: 394-340

Game 9
against Marek (126.13). Poor racks and a blank I got as the last letter from the bag made this game weak. Two bingos for my oponent. Zero bingos for me.
L: 325-374

Game 10
against Rafal (120.30). Zero blanks, zero bingos, nothing to write home about.
L: 326-486

Game 11
against 3rd of my Lodz Scrabble Club colleagues - Anna (115.79). I played Anna on Friday and lost to her. But the revenge was prefect. One blank, one bingo and a narrow win by 8 points.
W: 335-327

Game 12
against Beata (112.38). Beata was lucky in this game bingoing three times. My bingo came way too late on the last move - SZePT(A)NI (of males - whispered).
L: 347-394

Game 13
against Andrzej (115.31) - 4th of my Lodz Scrabble Club colleagues. No blanks, no bingos - my weakest game of the tournament.
L: 238-414

I finished the tournament in 42nd place with 5-8 record.

Blanks: 14/26 (53%)
Bingos: 16 (1,23 per game)

All in all a disappointing finish only sweetened by the fact that the two top places were taken by guys from Lodz - Jakub and Jarek. Well done, guys!

Łódź Tournament - day 1

It started oh so well and ended in pure frustration...

Game 1
against Michal (rated 123.01) from Lodz Scrabble Club whom I played and beat in yesterday's first tournament game. It was the same old story today. I got two blanks again and won comfortably bingoing three times with IdIOTKO (you female idiot!), TAWERNY (taverns) and PODPISu (of the signature).
W: 452-332

Game 2
against Dorota (124.58). One bingo for me AKAN(T)AMI (with acanthi). The rest of the game was a struggle for me to bingo again. As one of the observers told me I had a bingo on my rack which I hadn't spotted SOLNYmI (with salty things).
L: 282-369

Game 3
against Julita (103.28). Each of us had one bingo. I got two blanks which turned out crucial in the last move when I went out with CZEśĆ (bye) for 30 points to win the game. My only bingo was WYRAzIE (about the word).
W: 367-341

Game 4
against 2003 Polish Scrabble champion and current no. 3 on the rating list (rated 146.73) - Kazik. I hadn't expected to win this game and I didn't. Yet I bingoed twice with A(M)BONAMI (with the pulpits) and PRASO(W)eJ (of the press thing) and am quite happy with that. Kazik got almost all high scoring letters and managed to score well with them.
L: 310-404

Game 5
against current no. 6 on the rating list (rated 145.01) - Michal. A one-sided encounter. I bingoed once with RoDZINK(A) (a small family) which my opponent countered immediately with GRODŹ for even more points.
L: 288-467

Game 6
against Piotr (111.07). Two bingos for me - ZMYKANI(A) (of the running away) and ZMYLeNI (the confused ones). In the end the tile-tracking I did helped me win by 6 points.
W: 384-378

Game 7
against another of my Lodz Scrabble club colleagues - Grzegorz (122.80). Our club record was 2-1 for me before this one. And it was going again my way after I bingoed with (N)AGONIło (it has chased enough) and ZAW(I)SACH (of the hangings?). And then my opponent bingoed with PILICIE (no idea what that means...) opening much space. I tried to close it but forgot about the major hook to MAŻ - SMAŻ. On came my oponent's four letter word taking 57 points and equaling the score. In the end I was faced with vowelless racks and the defeat was complete. I was kicking myself after that game, in fact I still am. How can you lose a game like that... D@#$% !
L: 359-388

In the end of day one I'm on 3-4.
The good news is I was lucky with the blanks. In each game I had at least one.In two games I even had both, which means 9/14 (64%). Not bad!

Playing Scrabble in Lodz today

please keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Live scoring at: http://live.pfs.org.pl/

The King is dead, long live Scrabble

Polish President inearthed, mourning is finished.
Now let's get back to the usual stuff.

Next weekend there's the official Scrabble tournament in Lodz. I'll be taking part in it. Additionally on Friday there is the regular club tournament. This means 18 games of Polish Scrabble during 3 days. Should be fun :)

undescribable....

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/10/poland.president.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=T1

ANTLION

Just 7 letters for only 7 points and yet...

ANTLION made me forget for a few happy minutes about the futility of studying words without meanings.

ANTLION made me ponder about the etymology of this word accross the languages showing surprising similarity.

ANTLION with its compound structure made me think of German language where such structures are commonplace.

ANTLION made me look it up in Wikipedia and Google Images.

ANTLION made me shiver when I learnt that it digs holes to catch ants.

One simple word.
If you think of all Scrabble words the world seems endless...

Rosemary's Bingo (2)

Scrabble tiles play a key role in Rosemary's discovering that her neighbour's real name isn't Roman Castevet but Steven Marcato when...

turns out to be...

Scrabble in Boat (2)

...and so I hurried to the Scrabble club directly after work (yes I sometimes have to work on Sundays...).
It all started at 15:00. 6 games a 20 minutes with free challenge.
And it went like this:

Game 1 Grzegorz
W:365-362
Grzegorz bingoed twice, I only once but still managed to squeeze the win.

Game 2 Urszula
L: 305-311
One funny situation in that game -I was facing DEEIRS? on my rack and what came to my mind was DRESIE and I was struggling to find a valid bingo. After the game i found out i could have played aDRESIE and was devastated by the obviousness of that bingo. In the endgame I panicked seeing the clock hand reaching twelve and disregarding the small hand showing me the last minute. I lost with a blank on the rack...

Game 3 Grazyna
W: 364-411
Oh, I was lucky in this game. Grazyna told me she had bingos all the way through and ended plying only one with me always blocking the right spots for her :) What I found especially exciting was her playing ODYMANI on the double-double for 97 points when I stroke back with UBOJAMI with the A extending her bingo into ODYMANIA (whatever that means) for 94 points.

Game 4 Maciej
L: 274-385
No bingos in that game for me. When I tried to play DERBACh it got challenged off because I hooked his phoney *TENT to *TENTA...

Game 5 Jarek
L: 327-390
A nice bingo for me from Z to the TWS - (Z)AMGLONO for 92 with another possibilty to play GALONOM. In the end my opponent bingoed and I found myself with an awkward rack, having to exchange, then he closed the board and it was game over.

Game 6 Adam
L: 355-368
Could have gone either way. Adam went into the lead on the first move and I was chasing him all the way. I caught him in the middle by playing (C)IEŃCIEż for 103. This word is so awkward nobody would ever use it, Adam challenged it but it stayed on the board. When I look back on it, it was a miracle I found it - you just need to imagine facing CEEIIŃ? on the rack and making 100+ points of it. On the last 4 moves of the game I was mirroring Adam's score with 18 and 36 trailing by 1 point. He played out with 10 points got 2 points from we and won by 13. I wasn't a bit sad...

I'm quite happy with my performance. I beat one strong player again and spotted some nice bingos like SZWALN(I)E meaning LATHES which is a word you immediately associate in Poland with LODZ as this city used to be the main textile production centre in Poland.

More about Łódź:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%81%C3%B3d%C5%BA

My bingos:
GnIDZIE, SEdANIE, SZWALN(I)E, UBOJAMI, (Z)AMGLONO, (C)IEŃCIEż

So only 1 bingo / game
50% blanks

A night on the tiles

The BBC documentary I appeared in - whole 1 second of it ;) - has even got its record on the IMDB site.

Now that's a WOW!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1577917/


My post about the documentary:
http://literaxx.blogspot.com/2009/12/merry-scrabble-x-mas.html

suspicious blog

Today when I was trying to access my blog from my company, I got this message. Creepy!

Scrabble in Boat*

I'm happy to anounce that the Łódź Scrabble club reported on my good performance in the recent tournament on Friday. They even linked to my blog :)

http://www.scrabble.lodz.pl/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=510&Itemid=2\ (Polish)

On Sunday 15:00 there is another meeting, I'm coming :)

Łódź (pronounced "would" like in a phrase "would you") - name of Poland's second third biggest city (744 500 inhabitants)
łódź - Polish word for boat

Scrabble can be fun!

Yes, that's true! If you play it in your native language in the club with no need to prove anything to anyone - especially yourself. If you don't care about winning or losing, about the ratings, spreads, high scores, numbers of bingos etc. You play Scrabble for fun and that's what all games should be about.

I've just come back from the Scrabble club. I have played my first ever club tournament and I feel great! I placed 2nd out of 10.

Game 1 Andrzej
W: 382-287
2 bingos: STYLOWA and WAB(I)oNYM


Game 2 Kuba
L: 321-400
1 bingo: GrUNCIE


Game 3 Grazyna
W: 427-264
3 bingos: UB(R)ANIEM, W(Y)PNIESZ, ŚWIETNI


Game 4 Radek
W: 376-274
2 bingos: UTRACIE, NAGI(Ę)TEj

Game 5 Grzegorz
W: 382-285
2 bingos: BONANZO, RYCZA(Ł)Em

Spread +378
for 378 - against 302
2 bingos per game


I actually made some use of my English Scrabble vocabulary by playing ATONIO and BONANZO.


NB:
I was willing to go to the Rammstein concert in Lodz today but I decided to save money this month and passed on it. As it turned out on the day of the concert I went to the Scrabble club. The building was exactly opposite the Atlas Arena where Rammstein was giving its concert today. When I came there I found it impossible to park my car and I almost gave up but somehow found a parking space. Later when I got out of the club I could here the distant sound of "Engel"...

Primoz... ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo%C5%BE_Peterka

Rafal vs Wojtek reloaded

So the two strongest Scrabblers from Warsaw met again for a Scrabble rematch. It ended with, believe it or not, the same score - 11:1 for Rafal.

It looks definitely like Rafal is the strongest player in Poland at the moment.

As a current Scrabble champ I should be doing something about it, but frankly I don't have time. I switched my focus away from Scrabble and currently I'm concentrating on my job...

Time will show if my love for Scrabble will prevail. For the moment it's a farewell to Cardbox and plans to learn all the 5's...

Rafal vs Wojtek

11:1 for Rafal after a 9-hour long 12 game marathon!
Revenge on Tuesday...

Clash of the titans

4 months after my first visit to Rafal in Warsaw we played at his place again. Last time I won 10:6.
This time Rafal got his revenge. Having won the C Division at the UK Open earlier this year Rafal was on fire and beat me by 8 games to 6.
After 14 games Rafal scored 5516 points (average: 394 pts per game). I scored only 4 points less - 5512 - and that made my defeat sweeter.
My highlight play came in game 5. Facing DEEIIS? on the rack and a pretty blocked board I went for my first 10-letter bingo ever: DEbI(LIT)IES for 62 points. Beware, Nigel, I'm coming ;)

I also played 3 games with Wojtek who joined us in the evening. I won 2 of them. In the first game Wojtek exposed his great skill once again by playing FLAILED directly under 5 letters of my bingo PTERINS:
_ _ P T E R I N S
F L A I  L E D

My bingos from all 17 games:
LOONIEs, BEFlEA(E)D, T(A)NGELOS, IN(S)ERTER, sEEDERs, PTERINS, SHEITAN, pOINTER, MINSTER, SPURNED, AERIEST, DEbI(LIT)IES, NOT(E)LETS, SLAYINg, REGUL(A)TE, SWOLLEN, R(E)LiVING, EnGORES, S(A)LARIES, REt(I)MING, WIDENE(R)S, (W)ROOTING, BLOATEr, TERRITS, ArSENAt(E), DIETIST(S), HOVeRED, NUTRIAS, NAMASTE  

1,70 bingos per game - just about my average.

And here are some nice bingos I missed / didn't know:

CLEMENT, FATBIRD, MURRINE, OFLACTS, TRIPART, WAIFING, MUSHIER (HEURISM), KLUDGEY


Altogether I'm happy with my performance. It's also great to see Rafal's game improve all the time. This means I have to up my level to stay in contention :)

Rosemary's Bingo (1)

Scrabble is featured in Roman Polanski's 1968 movie "Rosemary's baby". The movie was based on the 1967 novel by Ira Levin.
Scrabble board can be seen in a scene where Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse are playing the game on the floor of their new appartment in New York.
What strikes me is:
1. the invalid word ALY
2. no bingos
3. KAZOO as the first word on the board :)

MEdia... again

Today I was woken up by my mother who informed me that there's an article on me in a local Poznan weekly newspaper "Poznaniak".Cool :)

Scrabble and the media

Here is an article about Mihai Pantis (in Romanian):
http://think.hotnews.ro/pantis-paceaura-pacfong-pachesca.html

Our Rafal didn't even get a mention on the Polish Scrabble Federation site (http://www.pfs.org.pl/) after winning Division C at the UK Open...

taking a break

i'm taking a break from my laptop. This means no more online Scrabble for the next 12 days, 12 days of no blogging and zyzzyva-quizzing. Sounds like fun...

my little secret

5 hours after Helen has declared to have 13000 questions due in her cardbox I happily inform, that after nine months of cardboxing holiday I'm back to my normal quizzing EINORTU again! Today I managed to finally come back to 0 due questions... for today, that is ;) I also upgraded my helpful Excel file to a 2007 version and was happy to see the macros still working fine :)

WE RULE ! (UK Open - day 5)

`
Rafal Dominiczak has won Division C at the UK Open in Coventry. After a grueling fight he ensured the title in his last - 38th game of the tournament. He won the tournament on spread of +2530.

Rafal wins 1500 Ł - the highest prizemoney won by a Polish Scrabble player ever!

CONGRATULATIONS!

In division B Mihai Pantis of Romania claims the title and 1500 Ł - six points clear of the rest of the field with a record of 31-7 +2203. According to Adrian Tamas this is the first prizemoney ever won by a Romanian player in a Scrabble tournament.
WELL DONE, MIHAI !

In division A Nigel Richards walks away with the 1st prize of 2100 Ł - two points ahead of Paul Allan (2nd) and Craig Beevers (3rd).

Helen finished 5th and gets 105 Ł.
After a good start to the tournament Adrian hit the lows and finished 18th.

A fascinating tournament and a lucky finish for two of my hot favorites.
It's fantastic that players from countries which could be called "underdogs of English-language Scrabble" managed to beat the native players on their home ground. I think this is an example that if we could start the movement of English Scrabble on a wider scale in Poland / Romania the success would be almost certain.

Scrabblers

If you're looking for photos of Scrabblers from around the world, you could check out: 
http://www.student.euv-frankfurt-o.de/~euv121088/scrabblers4.htm

Disclaimer:
The above file was compiled using a publicly available file:
http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/players/photos.txt

UK Open - day 4

Rafal  1st    (C)     26,5-9,5 +2520
Mihai  1st    (B)     30-6 +2166
Helen  5th   (A)     22-14 +725
Adrian 17th  (A)    17-19 +393

After a breathtaking performance Rafal went into top spot after round 31 and is still leading after round 36 with only two games left to be played. He is tied on points with Andy Gray but has by far the better spread (+2520 vs +853).
Today Rafal won 9 games and tied 1. Amazing!!!
To clinch the title Rafal needs to win 2 games tomorrow. If Andy Gray loses one game then Rafal can also afford one defeat.
In his final two games Rafal will be playing the current no 15 Ted Lewis. Andy Gray will be playing a theoretically tougher opponent Sam Beckwith who's in 9th place.
I can't wait 'till tomorrow. Rafal could win 1500 Ł. This would be the highest prizemoney any Polish player has won playing Scrabble...


Mihai Pantis has already secured 1st place in Division B - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
I hope Rafal can win division C - it would mean a double victory for Romanian-Polish Scrabble - and that on the English ground!

UK Open - day 3

Rafal  4th (C) 17-9 +1503
Mihai 1st (B) 20-6 +1311
Helen 6th (A) 16-10 +857
Adrian 13th (A) 13-13 +863

As I have predicted Nigel Richards is back to 1st place. He did it in impressive style winning all 8 games today, extending his spread by almost 1100 points to +2718, and going into the lead by two points over Paul Allan and Craig Beevers.

Trivia:
In round 19 Mihai demolished his opponent by winning 641:234 with a spread of +407 !

Harshan Lamabadusuriya's new photo:
http://www.centrestar.co.uk/10ukopen/html/pix/h/harshan_lamabadusuriya.jpg :)

WESPA Rating

Finally the new WESPA rating has arrived.
My new rating is 1600.
Due to the fact that I haven't played 50 internationally rated games my name is not featured on the main rating list, which is sad. Had I been there, I would be ranked in 345th place in the world.

The new number one in the world is Ganesh Asirvatham who hasn't played since June 2008. Nigel Richards (this year's WSC runner-up) is in 2nd place. Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (current World Scrabble Champion) is 3rd. Fair enough?

And here are the ratings of some of my 'friends':
11 Peter Kougi 2053
25 Helen Gipson 2007
42 Theresa Brousson 1978
51 Geoff Thevenot 1963
53 Jeff Grant 1962
79 Ong Suanne 1930
82 Allan Oyende 1927
87 Hubert Wee 1923
92 Ralph Lobo 1909
113 Charnrit Khongthanarat 1886
126 Michael Quao 1870
127 Leslie Charles 1868
129 Annand Buddhev 1866
132 Vannitha Balasingam 1863
133 Ayorinde Saidu 1863
147 Patrick Mpundu 1853
157 Waseem Khatri 1843
164 Dielle Saldanha 1838
169 Adrian Tamas 1835
216 Mihai Pantis 1784
252 Rodney Judd 1729
254 Chris Abordo 1727
258 Michael Tang 1722
330 Wojtek Usakiewicz 1632
375 Rohaina Tanveer 1537
393 Cecil Fernandes 1508
407 Warodom Geamsakul 1466
464 Anthony Gomes 1344


A full rating list can be found on:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/PBR.html

UK Open - day 2

After 18 rounds:
Rafal: 6th in Div. C with 11-7 +912
Mihai: 1st in Div. B with 14-4 +639
Helen: 7th in Div. A with 11-7 +775
Adrian: 13th in Div. A with 9-9 +622

In Division A:
1st Craig Beevers 15-3 +1341
2nd Paul Allan      15-3 +1291
3rd Nigel Richards 13-5 +1627

It's gonna be an exciting tournament!

Rafal the Fighter

My friend Rafal Dominczak (Poland) is having a go in the Division C of the UK Open in Coventry at the moment. He's doing very well. Currently he;s in 4th place with a record of 4-4 and +243.
Go go go, Rafal !!!

I also keep my fingers crossed for Mihai Pantis (Romania) in Division B and Helen Gipson and Adrian Tamas in Division A.

You can follow this year's action at:
http://www.centrestar.co.uk/10ukopen/html/index.html

And guess, who's in 1st place after day 1...
Correct! It's Nigel Richards with 7-1 and +984...

2010 - an outlook

So what can we accept Scrabble-wise in Poland this year?

my good Scrabble-pal Rafal Dominiczak is off to Coventry tomorrow for the UK Open. We wish him all the best!

I hope we can organize at least one Scrabble tournament in Poland this year.

I hope at least some of us can make it to tournaments played abroad. Our Romanian friends in Cluj Napoca would like to see us play there. And then there is this Peterborough in England offering a 24-hour Scrabble marathon for a reasonably small entry fee. Or maybe we'll fly to Malta... And how about Causeway 2010? (...)

And what about bringing new serious players to this game? I don't expect much can be done in this matter without a new organization dedicated to English-language Scrabble in Poland.

And here are my Scrabble New Year's Resolutions:

• shift the focus from Scrabble to more serious things
• spend at least as much time studying words as playing online
• finally learn all the 5's and master the hooks

Happy New Year!